BrandAlley leverages the power of AI to unlock the boundless potential of fan-fueled growth

What do Taylor Swift, an NBA Champ, and the flash-sale website BrandAlley have in common? They all have loads of adoring fans.

Luxury brand goods is a $387 billion market, but during challenging economic times, consumers are not as likely to put their money where their love of labels is. We’ve all been tempted to splurge – whether it’s watching Taylor Swift strut her stuff on her Eras Tour in those Christian Louboutin boots and thinking how glamorous those would look on me or seeing the freshly crowned NBA Champion, Jayson Tatum, in the latest Coach ad and musing what a great gift a Coach watch would make. 

However, while it’s clear that luxury goods are of the highest quality, some of us still can’t seem to justify to our frugal selves that the hefty price tag is worth it. That’s where flash-sale website BrandAlley comes to the rescue. They help their nine million members acquire the high-end labels they love at up to 90% off the recommended retail price.

Even in business, faithful fans fuel growth

BrandAlley doesn’t have the celebrity advertising power to help spread the word about its website – but the company has something better: its fans. Customers gained through advocacy are generally happier. They purchase about 64% more than customers acquired through other, more costly channels. More importantly, they make four times more referrals to other like-minded people who appreciate getting the goods they desire at reasonable prices.

So, naturally, BrandAlley wanted to gain more customers through advocacy. But they first needed to have an accurate, reliable way to identify which customers are their strongest advocates who are likeliest to refer friends and family to the site. Since they didn’t have this, they had to innovate.

No star power? No problem.

Luckily, artificial intelligence (AI) has vast potential when it comes to business transformation capabilities. That’s why BrandAlley chose to leverage the Customer Advocacy Intelligence Platform from Mention Me Limited, a participant in the SAP.iO program. The advanced AI platform allowed them to identify which of their customers were their most loyal advocates and track the spend of their entire referral network.

Once able to determine who their enthusiastic fans were, BrandAlley wanted to reward those fans with special offers and promotions that would fuel additional growth by making it easy for the advocates to refer BrandAlley to others. For that, they needed a way of personalizing content, offers, and timing of communications. This was made possible thanks to integration with the SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement solution. 

With their new-found ability to target the right customers at the right time with the right message, BrandAlley has acquired 12% more customers through referrals. Plus, their customers are benefiting more than ever and are more engaged thanks to highly personalized communications. Twenty-five percent more of their customers repeatedly purchase.

Now maybe we can all have nice things

BrandAlley learned that earned growth through brand advocates is far more valuable than any paid methodology. With the help of artificial intelligence, the company is now able to effectively grow its fanbase and make the luxury-brand-owning dreams of frugal folks like me come true.

BrandAlley is an SAP Innovation Awards 2024 finalist. To learn more about the Customer Advocacy Intelligence Platform, download the pitch deck.